Tactical dream I just had in which I was about to be the school-shooting hero
Um, this one is weird.
I was up really late last night and so I slept in today.
I had been having a lot of really weird dreams, and the last one I remember took place in a school.
It seemed to be a high school and I don't know what I was doing there, since in the dream I didn't feel like a high school student.
I was walking out, and noting to myself that the school's population looked like the typical south Florida school population. I felt a bit of nervousness because I was passing by a lot of very hoodie, thug-looking cliques, and it seems I was carrying a big case (like my laptop computer).
As I walked through a common area on my way to the outdoors, I saw a young man, blond, average size, carrying a rifle and pointing it in the direction he was walking, which was 180 degrees to my direction. He and I passed within feet of each other as others were milling around hither and thither. There were several dozen people in the vicinity at least.
As I passed by him, I heard him start to shout something to people, and then heard him really yell angrily, "GET OUT!!" I trotted on away and got to the curbside, set down my stuff, and reached for my small shoulder bag, which I often use to contain my Glock 27. I unzipped it as I was taking out my cellular phone.
I vividly remember thinking to myself that the phone won't do me any good if the guy should come my way, so I should get the gun ready first. I thought to myself the old adage that pilots use, "Aviate, navigate, communicate, in that order!"
But I was nervous about taking out the gun because I was in a school, and it was a forbidden, illegal item! I wanted to be sure that if I allowed myself to be seen with the gun, it was because I was stopping the subject.
So I unzipped the bag and put my hand on the gun's grip, and started to try to dial 911. I remember looking right at my phone, and two or three times I started to dial 199 or something! :laughing: So I finally slowed down the adrenaline, and dialed 911, but I couldn't hear anyone on the line with me. Finally I pushed my earpiece farther into my ear and realized that I had a male operator on with me, and I said something that I don't recall about the school shooter. I said that there was a kid with a rifle but I don't know if he's shot anyone yet. The operator told me that yes, he had (I then guessed that others had already called in).
I went around a corner slowly, going the way I had seen him go, and I had yet to hear any shots (which I figured would be loud, since his rifle appeared to be like a bolt-action hunting rifle). I saw a panicked-looking young woman coming toward me, and I mouthed the words, "Where is he?" to her, and she rolled her eyes to indicate that he was coming right behind her.
I looked up and saw him walking toward us but not noticing us, so I backed around the corner, drew from my bag (I had my hand on the gun the whole time but inside the concealment of the bag) and aimed at the corner around which he would come at any moment. I thought to myself that he might have seen me before I ducked away, and that he might come around the corner with the rifle raised and simple fire at first sight of me, so I crouched down with my aim point about chest level.
When he came around the corner, I was aiming for center of mass, and he seemed to be walking with someone else near him, but I couldn't tell anything about that person (accomplice, hostage, other). I remember taking the slack out of the Glock's trigger and I really think I was trying to fire, but suddenly this became one of those dreams where your gun doesn't fire like it ought to, and I wasn't sure if I was going to get a shot out of it or not! (Very frustrating.)
Anyway, that's the moment at which I woke up. I don't think he had even seen me, as he was looking in a slightly different direction. But the cliffhanger is, was my gun going to fire for me or not?!
I guess a dream like this is inspired subconsciously by the news, and by the habit of CCWing. It's funny to me how even in a dream, I was worried about being in trouble for having been carrying in a prohibited place. It sucks that we have to worry about that, when we might actually be able to save some lives.
